Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

The young Chinese woman in the photo is certainly a beautiful one. In a recent social media post I came across, the poster spoke of how the woman, the girlfriend of a fellow American engaged in cutting-edge technological research in Japan, may be a front for Chinese state-sponsored spying. His evidence? That the attractive woman is just way out of his friend's league, and that her being enamored with him cannot realistically be possible without some sort of ulterior motives. Through the story, the poster cautioned others to stay far away from overly enthusiastic Chinese women in their midst.

The schedule of an educational consultant unaffiliated with a regular school can be an odd one. With students occupied with their classes until late afternoon on weekdays, the consultant is not in a position to speak to the same kids until their evening hours and weekends. The result is that the consultant's work becomes not so different from a barman: busy from the dinner hours late into the night, with no possibility of a free weekend. For someone like me who has always worked in corporate jobs where weekends and holidays are almost sacred for otherwise busy employees, the service industry work schedule is new.

China and the United States negotiated a temporary truce in their ongoing trade war, slashing the tariffs they had imposed on one another for 90 days and lifting stock markets worldwide in its aftermath. However, analysts from various news outlets, and surely, investment banks, continue to see uncertainties as the two sides left largely unsaid what will happen after those 90 days expire. Will the tariffs go up and send business and markets downhill once again, or will the vaulted idea of "continued negotiation mechanism" established during these talks help dial down the temperature permanently?